newbie asks strange circle on screen; where is INFO ?

[sparrowhawkms 0]

Hi ! I am a newbie^2 besides NOT knowing about OFF , this is also the first fiying program I have ever tried !

 

< Quick Combat/ Free Flight > starts with a aircraft parked aircraft. I flew it and landed OK, making sure to reduce Throttle to min, and using < Mixtrue Idle Cut Off >

keyboard command to turn-off the engine, the aircraft rolls to a stop ...since there are no Brakes.

 

QUESTION:

1. What is the movable circle, about 2 inch dia ( 5 cm) marked at the top at 12 o'clock: [ 24 NM ] at the bottom at 6 o'clock [ 8 NM ] ?

[ All ]

during flight, a green radial line projects from the center to the circumference, and it seems to vary its position as the

aircraft banks in 180 degrees.

 

2. What do the irregular 10 ea blue 1/8 inch blotches represent?

 

3. Where is the explanation of that circle ?

 

4. what commands cause the circle to be shown. Suddenly there is NO circle ! Is that because I

must have removed it by random striking of keys on the keyboard ?

 

a lot of questions ! Hope somebody can tell me the answer to question 3 !

 

sparrowhawkms

[TSmoke 2]

Sounds like you are talking about the TAC screen(call it a radar screen) . The green line points to the next way point. The TAC can be changed to show friendly and enemy targets, ie. airccraft, ground targets, airbases and one or two others. Blue represents friendly and red targets are the enemy. You can drag the TAC screen anywhere you like by using the mouse.

 

As for the key strokes to make it appear and disappear I cannot remember. There will likely someone coming along that can explain more about it for you.

 

Best advice I can give is read Uncleals Hints and Tips on the top of the help page, many things there that will help as you get addicted to this game.

[theultimat 5]

I'm pretty sure that it's Shift + T to toggle the TAC on and off. And welcome to the forums!

[sparrowhawkms 0]

I'm pretty sure that it's Shift + T to toggle the TAC on and off. And welcome to the forums!

 

TSmoke, theultimat :

Thanks for the help !

 

1. < Uncleals Hints and Tips > I will return to it in the future

 

 

< AN IMPORTANT QUESTION .

Where is the TAC discussed ?

I really do appreciate the help, but I am missing something if I don't understand where this information lives ! Where??

 

sparrowhawkms

[theultimat 5]

Glad to be of service! Also, here's two posts from the Tips and Tricks which you may find useful:

• Explanation of the TAC Screen
• Using the HUD (I know you didn't ask for this, but I found it very useful when I was starting out)

Hope this helps.

[33LIMA 972]

Welcome, sparrowhawkms!

 

Think of that circle - the TAC or 'tactical display' - as a sort of mini radar display, combined with a simple flight-path display, with your plane at the centre of the clock-face.

 

You can:

 

1. move it around the screen by dragging & dropping with the mouse, to put it where you want;

2. display or hide it, using Shift+T

3. change the RANGE it covers, with Ctrl+Shift+T, from 8 miles out, down to 1 mile out, in increments of 1 mile

4. change the TYPE of target objects it displays, from 'all' thru aircraft, vehicles, buildings etc, using T (the targets are red blobs for enemy, blue blobs for friendly, white blobs if too far away to establish friend from foe)

5. lock your pilot's vision onto a specific target (using the 'padlock' function) - IIRC hit # to toggle padlock mode on, then hit Tab to cycle thru the targets displayed on the TAC - the one selected will change colour to yellow

6. direct your flight-mates (aka wingmen) to attack a specific target - make sure the TAC is displaying the type of target you want to indicate eg aircraft, then hit Tab till the target you want them to attack is selected (blob turns from red to yellow) then hit A (=Attack command).

7. using the light coloured line you mentioned, display the relative direction to your mission's next planned 'waypoint', as marked on the in-game map (Shift+W changes the line to point to the next waypoint, Ctrl+W changes it to point to the previous one, IIRC)

8. make it smaller, using Olham's TAC mod here at CombatAce - http://combatace.com...rs-smaller-tac/

 

The TAC is esssential for 5 and 6 - you can't designate targets or padlock targets without using it. It is also arguably good compensation for the 'situational awareness' you lose, from 'flying' in front of a monitor with no peripheral vision, little depth perception and the montor's resolution limits.

 

Until you work out what suits you best, before every takeoff, I would suggest you:

 

- turn the TAC on (Shift+T);

- change the target type from 'All' to 'Aircraft' (T) and

- for realism's sake, reduce its range from the upper limit of 8 miles down to something like 2 miles (Ctrl+Shift+T), increasing it only if you find it too hard to locate enemies during missions (which can be hard. as planes are often invisible until within about a couple of miles or less).

 

Incidentally, most of the OFF (CFS3) keyboard commands can be found on this chart, which I think has some not in the in-game manual: http://snomhf.exofir...mdkeysNoCFS.png

 

Good hunting!

Edited December 30, 2011 by 33LIMA

[sparrowhawkms 0]

33 Lima:

 

Thanks for the help ! I hope that someday I too will know enough to help a newbie.

 

sparrowhawkms

[+Polovski 415]

It's actually more of an pilot awareness radar i.e. it shows craft the pilot is likely to be aware of but not necessarily all. Looking around helps find other craft sometimes.